2011 VW Touareg Officially Unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show!

With all the news at the Chicago Auto Show, it's a surprise to see that VW released the details for the next-generation Touareg a month early, before its debut at the Geneva Motor Show.
The 2011 Touareg looks similar to the current generation but body has been sculpted more for a bit more style. The front end of the Touareg gets the same treatment as the recently introduced Golf. One of the biggest complaints about the current generation was how overweight it is. Weight reduction was one of the main goals with the next generation so VW has lowered the body weight by 460 pounds.
In addition to the new styling and reduced weight, the new Touareg also gets a hybrid option. The hybrid combines the supercharged and direct injected 3.0-liter V6 with an electric motor and an eight-speed automatic transmission.

Want the VW Amarok Pickup to Come to the US? VW Would Need to Sell 100k Units!

VW unveiled the Amarok pickup truck earlier this month. The body-on-frame truck is powered by a 2.0L turbo diesel with 163-hp and 295 lb-ft. of torque that helps it tow 5,600 pounds. There has been a lively debate about if the car should be sold in the US, since right now VW only plans on selling it in in South America, Australia, South Africa and Europe.

Well VW President and CEO, Stefan Jacoby has stated how many units VW would have to sell in the US to make it worthwhile.

"We'd have to sell at least 100,000 Amarok pickups to make it feasible," said Jacoby.

That basically means that the Amarok has no chances of coming here. The best-selling Toyota Tacoma is the only truck in that segment to sell over 100,000 units. Through November, 102,327 Tacomas have been sold. The next best-seller the Ford Ranger has sold only 51,097 units year-to-date.

The compact pickup segment is declining," said Jacoby. "Consumers are going to big pickups, which is a very traditional conservative segment. A lot of our competitors have burned their fingers in it as late entries."

"Before we could bring [the Amarok] here we'd have to do a lot of homework," said Jacoby. "But we have other vehicles to bring into this market first. Once we do that, we can talk about the Amarok."